Graul Breaks the Political Rules

It's a bit ironic that Xoff is off-line while the Mark Graul story that Bill had pushed begins to finally unravel in the sunshine. Nonetheless, let's tip our collective hat to Bill and take away these additional political and media lessons:

Graul didn't do his boss, Cong. Mark Green, any favors by a) embarrassing the boss and gubernatorial candidate, and b) keeping the story alive with weeks of bobbing and weaving.

Most of all: the story will get fresh and lasting legs because it's finally in the mainstream media - - bigtime - - namely, in the Sunday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Blogs and websites have a roll to play, but as with the Ament recall, a story doesn't take off in Wisconsin until and unless it's prominently in the big daily paper. (Full disclosure: I worked for The Milwaukee Journal, and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, from 1983 to 1996.)